(Tucson, Ariz.) – March 13th, 2012 -- Attorney General Tom Horne today announced that a guilty verdict has been reached in Pima County Superior Court in the trial of Julianne Mari Lane, a home health worker in Tucson.

Over the course of seven months, Lane, 46, stole money belonging to an elderly patient. The loss was discovered by the patient’s family member after receiving several bank notices for insufficient funds.

“Crimes of this kind are among the most disturbing,” Horne said. “The vulnerable adult patient in this case trusted Ms. Lane to offer professional care and was instead the victim of theft. The most vulnerable in any society deserve protection and my office is committed to vigorous prosecution of these awful crimes.”

“I also want to thank the Tucson Police Department for its cooperation and dedicated work in bringing this case to a conclusion,” Horne added.

Lane was convicted on March 9th of one count of fraudulent schemes and artifices and one count of theft / financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. She had been tried on charges stemming from an indictment filed June 20, 2011 at the conclusion of a joint investigation conducted by the Tucson Police Department, the Attorney General’s Special Investigations Section and the Attorney General’s Health Care Fraud and Abuse Section.

At the time of these offenses, Lane was already awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to a charge of forgery in another Pima County case.

Sentencing is scheduled to take place on May 14th, 2012. Lane is facing a sentence from 6.5 to 25 years in prison.

The Attorney General’s Office and the Tucson Police Department are committed to aggressively prosecuting the criminals who betray the trust of our elderly citizens by entering into our senior citizen’s homes to provide care and then exploiting this trust to steal from these vulnerable individuals.